


Random Encounters

by MaskedGamer



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universes, More tags to be added, basically Percy meets his counterparts in different universes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 12:09:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16681366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaskedGamer/pseuds/MaskedGamer
Summary: “Oh.”“Yeah, I’d say the same if I’d heard it for the first time. What about your world? Medieval knights with WiFi and teenagers?”“Er... no,” Percy thought of ways to explain how bizarre his life was. “I’m a demigod.”“Sorry?”Or, the one where Percy meets himself in different worlds.





	Random Encounters

The first time that it happened, Percy remembered being extremely angry.

 

It was more of an irritated-angry, rather than the I-am-going-to-kill-you-angry that most people seemed to have adopted as their primary mood. And it was all for good reason, he thought dryly.

 

He’d been walking across the path in the middle of the strawberry fields, breathing in the spring air with repose, when suddenly, the sweet smell of berries was replaced with a rotting scent that sent his nostrils screaming in protest.

 

Percy then realized that he wasn’t at Camp Half Blood anymore. No, he was standing in the middle of a huge piece of barren land (with the occasional patch of grass) that he was sure wasn’t at his camp.

 

“What the hell, man!”

 

He turned around, glaring, and regretted doing so immediately.

 

There, on the grass, lie a few corpses. Not one, mind you, but three, each having a body so mangled and bloody that it was impossible to see their faces. A pool of red could be seen next to each one, if you squinted hard enough.

 

He was silent for a minute.

 

Then he let out a stream of curses starting with ‘Oh’ and ending with ‘sake’, with such vulgarity that we couldn’t put it in this story, for it is rated as K+. Luckily, he only whispered it to himself, despite having seen worse things.

 

But it wasn’t the sight of it that caused his disbelief, it was the way in which it was done. The body surface had been sliced open, leaving the body anatomy open for anyone - aspiring doctor, or not - to see. Percy wasn’t getting a medical degree, or any degree any sooner, he thought sardonically.

 

He averted his eyes from it, instead turning around and checking his pocket for Riptide, his trusty sword.

 

“Let’s find this Jack the Ripper,” he muttered, holding the pen in one hand as he walked towards the thick expanse of trees on the right. If this was another trick from a child of Hecate, Percy swore he was going to gut them the minute he got back there.

 

That raised the question - where was ‘here’, exactly?

 

The hairs at the back of his neck bristled. Someone was behind him.

 

In a split second, he turned a round, unsheathed his sword, and pointed it at whoever had the audacity to sneak up behind him.

 

He was met with his own face.

 

“What the freaking-“ the two of them said at the same time, before the guy with his face shook his head. “Jesus, I’m getting quite tired of this. Who are you, which dimension are you from, what is your reason for being here..?”

 

“You... you have my face,” Percy said, like that was a math question off Miss Dodds’ head, designed to torture. He lowered his sword, but the tension was still high in the air.

 

Not-Percy rolled his eyes, which looked strange to Percy. “Yes. Your point?”

 

“Where am I?”

 

The other Percy looked unfazed. “Oh yes, forgot introductions. Hi. I’m you, and you’re me. Welcome to Earth-43, where-“

 

“JACKSON! I’M GONNA KICK YOUR SORRY BUTT, YOU LOSER!”

 

He shut his mouth, looking bored. “Oh, here comes Thalia. You have a Thalia in your dimension, right?”

 

Percy was too stunned to answer. A dark figure jumped on top of Not-Percy, holding something that looked like a dagger to his throat.

 

“Do you even know about how worried I was?” Thalia Grace - Well, Not-Thalia - snapped darkly, poking a finger into the boy’s rib cage. “You go disappear, and I wonder if you died in a ditch somewhere! Whatever would I tell your dad?”

 

“I’m not stupid, Thalia.”

 

“Well, you sure act like you are,” she huffed. Then she saw Percy standing awkwardly near the duo. “Who’s this guy?”

 

“I was going to ask him when you very rudely interrupted me,” Not-Percy said, growling at the last few words, before looking back at Percy. “I’m sorry. I hope you can pardon my obnoxious cousin. Dimension?”

 

“Uh,” Percy didn’t know what to say, but Thalia seemed to catch his drift and saved him the embarrassment. “He wouldn’t know. He’s probably not a nerd like you.”

 

“The correct term is academically inclined. The only sane person left.”

 

“Very funny,” Thalia muttered, rolling her eyes. She glanced back at him. “So, is there the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in your world too?”

 

Percy blinked, and she laughed after a beat of silence.

 

“I’ll take that as a no. What’s in your dimension? Are you all medieval knights?” She poked his face, to which he immediately shrunk back at the contact. “You have a sword. But you’re wearing an orange T-shirt and jeans. Doubt that’s what medieval knights wear.”

 

“Wait, hold on,” Percy realized that his voice had miraculously been restored. “Zombie apocalypse?”

 

Thalia just gave a dirty look to the other Percy. “Yeah. It’s been two years since the whole thing broke out. So someone,” a pointed look, “is a complete nerdy, paranoid jerk and has made us be on the run ever since.”

 

If the other Percy heard, he didn’t comment.

 

“Oh.”

 

“Yeah, I’d say the same if I’d heard it for the first time. What about your world? Medieval knights with WiFi and teenagers?”

 

“Er... no,” Percy thought of ways to explain how bizarre his life was. “I’m a demigod.”

 

“Sorry?”

 

“Demigod. Like, a child of a Greek god and a mortal.”

 

“Oh.” Then she added, “that must suck. So what, you fight for the gods - or your parents?”

 

“How do you know?” Percy was already surprised by her lack of reaction, and he hadn’t expected that to be the first guess about his... reality.

 

“Ha, ha!” Thalia grinned. “Kid, all our dimensions have one thing in common, according to my nerdy cousin - that we all have horrible parents who make us fight for them or do all their work for them. Mostly.”

 

“Don’t call me kid.”

 

“Okay, angsty teen.”

 

Percy suddenly felt a little pang of familiarity, at how much this Thalia was like the one back home. The banter almost felt like the one he usually had with the daughter of Zeus. He forced a small grin and turned to his counterpart.

 

“Demigod... demigod... demigod... Greek pantheon? Yes...” he met eyes with Percy. He now found this even more unsettling - his own face staring back at him with a different expression that the one he had. “Describe your reality. I may be able to find it.”

 

“May?”

 

He received a smirk. “It’s not a definite science, Percy.”

 

It made him even more unsettled, his own voice calling out his name. “Er, but you can send me back?”

 

“Perhaps. I will find the one closest to your description and - pardon me - catapult you there.”

 

“I won’t even ask about that choice of words.”

 

A chuckle. “Typical.”

 

Percy stared at the two, out of which Thalia was fiddling with the lapel of her jacket. He looked at his alternate version, seeing the button-down shirt, trousers and the reading glasses that had mysteriously popped up on his face, and watched him tap random buttons on his small watch. Thalia was right - he did look like a nerd.

 

Well, he was only saying that once, and this was the last time too.

 

“Hey, stop standing there like an idiot, alternate-cuz.” Thalia frowned, before smirking. “Yeah, I like that. Alternate-cuz. Come on. We’ll show you around. Don’t die.”

 

Percy wondered if he should go with her, before the other Percy looked up, unfazed. “Come along, Percy. We won’t bite. That’s the zombies’ job.”

 

“Did my cousin just make a joke?” Thalia mock-gasped.

 

“Don’t get used to it.”

 

Thalia laughed and kicked him in the shin. They began walking in a seemingly random direction, but Percy knew that this was probably a path they had taken more than the number of times he said ‘huh?’ in a day.

 

He followed them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So yeah, he’d tried canned-post-zombie-apocalypse food, seen a few zombies, and successfully been catapulted back to his own reality. And he’d thought that was the end of it.

 

Nobody had to know it happened right before the war with Gaia, before he’d been deposited in New Rome. Nobody had to know that he’d been missing for a day before mysteriously showing up in front of the Big House like he’d popped into existence, at one in the morning. Nobody had to know that he barely survived against the cleaning harpies.

 

No one had to even think about different realities.

 

That was all before it happened again.


End file.
